


Boogeyman

by mneiai



Category: Silent Hill (Video Game Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, M/M, Minor Character Death, Suicidal Thoughts, Violence, liberties taken with canon, old fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 07:44:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10917399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mneiai/pseuds/mneiai
Summary: James had known Pyramid Head since he was a child





	Boogeyman

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first part of an old, unfinished fic I had posted on my LJ comm and am posting here for posterity. 
> 
> Original Notes:  
> So, I was bored tonight and the only movie on FearNet onDemand that I hadn't seen recently was Boogeyman. It got me started thinking about all the similar movies, ones with children having a horrific encounter with a monster and then having to face said monster as an adult, such as Darkness Falls. And I'd already been playing around for a while with the idea of writing some pre-game James-and-Pyramid-Head stuff, so this came about. I only have a vague idea of where it's going.

James never knew how to explain this to people. There was Mary, confused expression on her face as she waited for him to say something, and James had no idea why he hadn't come up with a speech for this exact moment. It was going to happen.

"You're...scared of the dark?" Mary supplied, needing to fill the silence.

He shook his head. "It's not that, it's...." He paused, sighing, "Remember how I told you about my mom?"

"That she passed away when you were younger?" He was given the standard sympathetic face.

"When I was a kid...the way she died...I convinced myself it was a monster that did it. My own personal version of the Boogeyman that I used to see in the shadows and around corners. And even though I'm old enough to know better...I can't really stop myself."

Mary put her arms around him, rubbing circles in her lower back. "And that photo reminded you of him?"

His eyes wandered towards the image in question, still wary from that first moment he saw it, watched it fall out of the book he'd ordered from an online auction site. He rationalized it to himself, reminded himself that people left bookmarks in their books all the time and that it was an interesting image to justify being one. Rationality never helped, though.

"My Boogeyman, I called him Pyramid Head." He let Mary get a snort out before continuing. "He wore this black apron, like a butcher would wear, and dragged around this huge sword, and...and he had this metal helmet thing on his head, huge and red."

"Oh." She looked at the photo again, cringing away from it now that she realized the connection. "That's...such a coincidence."

"I've spent my whole life running from a character I made up as a kid." James rolled his eyes. "But it doesn't matter. Look, let's just forget about this, okay?"

Mary nodded, but there was something in her expression that set James on edge.

***

James first saw Pyramid Head when he was wandering through the back of a store. His mother and the shopkeeper, the only other people there, had been way at the front, gossiping about something he didn't care about. There had been lots of weird knickknacks covering the shelves, drawing James away from the shelter of his mother's skirts towards the weirder objects.

He was tucked away in a corner, running his fingers over some shiny object or another, when he heard a noise, like metal against wood. Frowning, he'd glanced around, but he hadn't heard the bell over the door ring, so it couldn't be another person. The second time the noise sounded, he started towards it, edging through the rows of junk until he reached the very edge of the lighting, staring into the expanse of shadow beyond.

When something moved in the darkness, he had to clap a hand over his mouth to stifle a scream. He didn't want to interrupt his mother, didn't want her to be mad at him and not let him out of her sight again. So he tried to be cool, be mature, and he just stared at whatever it was until his eyes adjusted, gracing him with the image he'd come to associate with all of his nightmares.

Pyramid Head just stood there, making James wonder, later, after getting over his terror, if he was just as surprised that James saw him as James was. He thinks that was it, thinks he was some sort of fluke, something unnatural, something that could see things like Pyramid Head. And, in dark moments during his teens, when he wanted nothing more than to shred his wrists and make it all go away, he knew that whatever this curse was, it was also what attracted Pyramid Head to him.

That was the first time he saw Pyramid Head, but it wasn't the last. The fear began to slip away, eventually, as nothing bad ever really happened when they met. He'd nearly wet himself the first time Pyramid Head touched him, glove-covered hand moving back and forth over his head like an interpretation of petting an animal by someone who had never actually seen it done. It was awkward and that was what saved James' sanity.

Sometime around fifth grade was when James began to convince himself he was seeing things. Whenever Pyramid Head appeared he would close his eyes and talk to himself, whispering words of comfort and reassurance, telling himself that this wasn't real, that it was all in his head. It wasn't until the third time that Pyramid Head reacted, at first he acted bemused, but apparently he had his limits.

He let out a roar that James heard and yet didn't hear, then grabbed James by the back of his neck, lifting him off of the fallen tree he was sitting on. For a moment James heard words, heard a hissing, crackling voice raging at him as if from the other end of a long hallway. James just kept whispering his denial.

And then, nothing. The hand on him vanished and when James finally got up the nerve to open his eyes, Pyramid Head was gone.

James ran back to his family's cabin, stopping just before he would have burst in and made a scene. That night he asked leading questions about why they never vacationed anywhere else, talked about the more educational trips his school friends took to national parks and cities with museums and zoos. His parents exchanged looks, his fathering commenting that it was about time he'd grown out of this place, and they discussed where they would go the next year.

***

A week later they were packing, leaving for the last time. If James was going crazy, then maybe it was from all the free time he had. Next year he'd be seeing new things, running from one place to the next, and wouldn't have time to come up with any imaginary friends, good or bad.

It was like the world waited until he was almost free to remind James that he didn't get to be happy. A weird light filled the room just after the sound of a siren caused James to hold his hands against his ears, scowling. He frowned, realizing he must be seeing things again, and crawled onto his bed, throwing the sheet over him and making sure no light could get through.

Wrapped in his security blanket cocoon, he didn't think to worry about anyone else. Not until the screaming started. His father was in town, but his mother was in the kitchen, making sandwiches for the road so his father wouldn't have an excuse to stop for fast food. 

His mother was in the kitchen, screaming in a way James had never heard anyone scream before outside of a horror movie. James clutched onto his blanket, sobbing as quietly as he could, praying that this was all in his head, that he was hallucinating and his mom was fine and in a few minutes it would all stop and he'd see and hear nothing but reality.

~JAMES,~ a voice called to him from outside the sheet, but inside his room. ~YOU MADE THIS HAPPEN, JAMES. YOU HAD TO BE A BAD BOY.~

He shuddered, tears staining his cheeks and chest hurting from the hard sobs pulled through it. This was his fault. His mother was out there, hurt, and it was because he'd angered Pyramid Head. 

His father found him two hours later. The door to his room banged open and James cringed away, even though he knew Pyramid Head didn't have to do that to get at him. He felt strong, but human, arms cradling him to a chest with a frantic, mortal heartbeat, and he wished he could cry more.

***

James had never gone back to Silent Hill. His father had gotten rid of the family cabin and devoted most of his time to work, as if he could do nothing more for James than give him a roof over his head and a therapy session twice a week. As soon as he was old enough, he moved out, living with a friend in a dive apartment near their high school until he went away to college.

That was where he met Mary. Perfect, sweet Mary who forgave James all his little eccentricities, who even let James sleep with a nightlight on ("So that we don't stumble into anything if we have to get up"). But his unassuming fiancée backfired on him as soon as she found out about his phobia. She canceled the camping trip they had planned with a few friends and instead booked a room in a hotel close to Silent Hill, regurgitating crackpot theories out of self-help books until James had to give in to spare himself from the migraines she caused.

He was old enough to realize that what happened didn't have anything to do with a boogeyman, only with a human monster. Sometimes people did horrific things and, like his mother's killer, even got away with what they did. But that killer was long gone and certainly not anything like the Pyramid Head James still dreamed about. Mary wasn't a sadist, she was just trying to help.

It wasn't a terrible experience, the drive up to Silent Hill. Mary alleviated a lot of the anxiety he had, her soothing voice and hands grounding him. She reminded him of his mother.


End file.
